Former Receptionist: Dr. Stan Li Traded Prescriptions For Cash

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Queens doctor ran his office like a popular deli, where up to 100 patients a day would take numbers, wait their turn and then pay cash for painkiller prescriptions, a former receptionist at the clinic testified Wednesday.

As WCBS 880’s Irene Cornell reported, Xitong Li testified in the trial of Dr. Stan Li that visits to his pain-management clinic in Flushing, which was only open on weekends, would take about five minutes each and that patients would pay $100 in cash before walking out with prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.

Stan Li is facing manslaughter charges after authorities said he sold painkiller prescriptions to two drug-addicted patients who died of overdoses.

Prosecutors have portrayed Stan Li as a drug dealer with a medical degree, even alleging the doctor kept writing narcotics prescriptions to one patient who overdosed five times in a year and another whose father implored him to stop.

One former patient testified that he was able to get double the number of pills the doctor would normally prescribe just by making up a story about having a vacation coming up. Li never examined him or questioned his lies, Cornell reported.

When state officials stripped Li of his medical license in January 2012, they said the doctor also overlooked such warning signs as requests for early refills and state reports that patients were doctor-shopping for multiple prescriptions.